Antarctica and South America

 Things are getting real now. I finally got to the point of getting all the recommended gear into my bags. Unfortunately, even after taking out a couple of items of clothing, I am 1 kg over for my stowed bag (16kg - allowance on the Domestic flights is 15kg) and 2 kilos over with my carry-on (7kg - domestic flight allowance is 5kg)!  Tomorrow's problem will be to see if I can reduce it even further. Soo..I spread all my things out on the bed for Heidi to check for me as she is far better than I at culling what is not necessary. Pleasing result, I have actually got mine down to 16kgs too!!!

 Packing has been fun, especially when we are currently experiencing 35-degree temperatures! So, not to be out done by my daughter who I am sharing this blog with I decided to try on my gear

 Seeing as I am not taking a computer with me on this trip and seeing as the app BlogTouch that I had used previously, gave me issues with disappearing photos. I decided that I would try posting to blogger directly from my phone so this is my first trial post from my phone.  Trying adding photos. This will be us

In a few days time Heidi, Bill and I will be heading off on an amazing trip to Antarctica. This trip has been in the planning stages for a couple of years now. Heidi found out that the friend that we travelled in Nepal with - David Sinclair had started up his own company called Islands and Ice Travel. David is also a keen and accomplished photographer, has had extensive experience in taking tours to many interesting and amazing places such as Antarctica. So we are fortunate to be going off on his inaugural trip to Antarctica aboard the Icebreaker 'Polar Pioneer' Having signed up and paid the deposit for this trip we decided that it would be crazy to head all the way over there without experiencing parts of South America. The next year has been spent researching and booking places that we will be traveling in. Most of this has been done by Heidi our amazing in-house travel consultant. We will also be accompanied by Tejal, who, like us, when she heard about our plans for Antarcti